Sleeping Car Porters

The fact that the meeting was even happening was enough to produce an air of subversive excitement. One hundred years ago on August 25, 1925, Black sleeping car porters, hoping to form a union at the Pullman company, packed the Elks Hall in Harlem. Company spies were probably in the audience as well. Socialist A. Philip Randolph led the meeting, making the case that a union was the only way to deal with their grievances and reclaim their manhood. This gathering initiated a 12-year struggle to form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and win a first contract against a corporate giant.